Today Sector News – 29.01.2018
* AVIATION: The development of the 100-bln-rupee greenfield international airport at Purandar in Pune received a boost with a no-objection certificate from the Indian Air Force.
* BANKING: The government is considering a proposal to extend the time limit for the bankruptcy resolution process by up to 60 days following recent changes in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code that have led to a reset in the process in many cases. Commercial banks will need incremental provisions worth up to 890 bln rupees for the transition to the Indian Accounting Standards, or Ind-AS, effective from Apr 1, India Ratings said.
- Multiples Alternate Asset Management, the private equity fund founded by former ICICI Venture chief executive officer Renuka Ramnath, is set to raise as much as $1 bln in one of the largest capital-raising plans by a domestic asset manager. The government is debating whether to lower the approval threshold for resolution plans under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in a move aimed at preventing too many insolvent companies from going into liquidation.
* COMMODITIES: The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has called for meeting with two of the gold and jewellery trade's leading bodies--Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council and Bullion Federation of India--today to discuss lifting the embargo of gold articles and jewellery imports from South Korea.
* DEFENCE: The Tata group will soon start the process of hiving off all the defence-related businesses housed in
various operating companies into a vertical under Tata Sons and conclude the process by June 2018.
* ECONOMY: The Director General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties has initiated an anti-dumping investigation on imports of coated paper from China, the EU and the US. The government has worked out the details of a possible free trade agreement with the five nations Eurasian Economic Union, which is expected to give a big boost to the country's Eurasia policy. The government, in the next three months, will prepare a comprehensive road-map to double exports of marine products, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry said on Saturday.
* E-COMMERCE: With days left for the rollout of the intra-state e-way bill on Feb 1, several logistics and e-commerce companies are seeking clarifications on the new system, fearing operational inefficiencies and supply-chain disruptions.
* FINANCE: Indian Railway Finance Corp has raised 30 bln rupees through the issuance of five-year bonds to STATE BANK OF INDIA at 7.63% coupon. Exim Bank of India has raised $1 bln through a 10-year bond at 3.897%, Rajeev Kumar, secretary, department of financial services said in a tweet from his handle on Saturday.
* GOVERNMENT: The government on Thursday moved amendments to the insolvency and bankruptcy code, seeking to streamline the law and plug loopholes.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Venture capital fund Stellaris Venture Partners has roped in Cisco Investments, an arm of technology conglomerate Cisco, as a limited partner.
* INSURANCE: The ministry of electronics and information technology has allowed its 270,000 common service centres to partner with HDFC BANK and LIC for selling banking and insurance products across the country.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: In a bid to promote low-cost generic medicines, the health ministry plans to make it mandatory for pharma firms to carry the generic names of drugs in letters that are two font sizes larger than the brand name.
* POWER: Essar Power has decided to surrender the Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand in which it has already invested 4.9 bln rupees. The renewable energy sector in India is on the road to consolidation and players with smaller portfolios are looking at exiting the market as returns are shrinking in the face of lower tariffs and uncertainty on the policy front.
* RAILWAYS: The Indian Railways is working on a 35.3-trln-rupee investment plan by 2032, pushing up the capital expenditure for the ministry by around 91% from the current level.
* REGULATORY: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has decided to amend the current provisions in the Securities Act to enable the convergence of stock and commodity exchanges. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is likely to tighten net worth norms, introduce new shareholding rules and ease directorship conditions for stock exchanges, depositories and clearing corporations.
* STEEL: JSW will focus its resources for stressed assets in the iron-ore-rich eastern states of Odisha and Jharkhand, thus ceding ground in the race for Essar Steel. Arcelor Mittal and Nippon Steel are teaming up to jointly bid for Essar Steel. The last date for submitting bids for debt-laden Bhushan Power & Steel has been extended by 10 days to Feb 8 to consider some 'encouraging' offers, the Committee of Creditors decided on Saturday.
* TAXATION: Higher duty drawback rates for 102 products, including automobile and bicycle tyres and tubes, leather articles, marine and seafood products, came into effect from Thursday. Total collections under goods and services tax rose 7.3% on month to 867.03 bln rupees in December. Companies will be able to report delays of more than 30 minutes in the checking of electronic way bills carried by transport vehicles as the Goods and Services Tax Network will provide an online form where such information can be filed. The Income Tax Department claimed to have busted a racket of extracting fraudulent tax refunds by employees of bellwether companies like IBM, Vodafone and INFOSYS in alleged connivance with a chartered accountant in Bengaluru.
- The government will continue to rationalise the structure of the goods and services tax as the new indirect taxation system has stabilised in a much shorter time as compared to that of international peers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. The government may consider increasing import duty on certain medical devices in the forthcoming Budget with an aim to boost domestic manufacturing of those goods.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: Bharat Sanchar Nigam's move to monetise its real estate assets in order to shore up its revenues has run into trouble as the department of telecommunications has said since the ownership of the properties do not vest with the firm, its proposal cannot be processed. The Medical Technology Association of India has made a plea that all medical devices be brought under concessional GST rate of 5% from the current rate of 7.3% to lower the cost of healthcare, especially for needy patients. Vodafone Group chief executive Vittorio Colao has said that the swift progress made in closing the merger of the UK telecom companies India unit with IDEA CELLULAR and relaxing of spectrum holding caps reflect the improvement in ease of doing business in India. A consortium of Tata Group executives has teamed up with TPG Capital to bid for the fibre network owned by the Indian conglomerate's Tata Teleservices unit.
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* BANKING: The government is considering a proposal to extend the time limit for the bankruptcy resolution process by up to 60 days following recent changes in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code that have led to a reset in the process in many cases. Commercial banks will need incremental provisions worth up to 890 bln rupees for the transition to the Indian Accounting Standards, or Ind-AS, effective from Apr 1, India Ratings said.
- Multiples Alternate Asset Management, the private equity fund founded by former ICICI Venture chief executive officer Renuka Ramnath, is set to raise as much as $1 bln in one of the largest capital-raising plans by a domestic asset manager. The government is debating whether to lower the approval threshold for resolution plans under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in a move aimed at preventing too many insolvent companies from going into liquidation.
* COMMODITIES: The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has called for meeting with two of the gold and jewellery trade's leading bodies--Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council and Bullion Federation of India--today to discuss lifting the embargo of gold articles and jewellery imports from South Korea.
* DEFENCE: The Tata group will soon start the process of hiving off all the defence-related businesses housed in
various operating companies into a vertical under Tata Sons and conclude the process by June 2018.
* ECONOMY: The Director General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties has initiated an anti-dumping investigation on imports of coated paper from China, the EU and the US. The government has worked out the details of a possible free trade agreement with the five nations Eurasian Economic Union, which is expected to give a big boost to the country's Eurasia policy. The government, in the next three months, will prepare a comprehensive road-map to double exports of marine products, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry said on Saturday.
* E-COMMERCE: With days left for the rollout of the intra-state e-way bill on Feb 1, several logistics and e-commerce companies are seeking clarifications on the new system, fearing operational inefficiencies and supply-chain disruptions.
* FINANCE: Indian Railway Finance Corp has raised 30 bln rupees through the issuance of five-year bonds to STATE BANK OF INDIA at 7.63% coupon. Exim Bank of India has raised $1 bln through a 10-year bond at 3.897%, Rajeev Kumar, secretary, department of financial services said in a tweet from his handle on Saturday.
* GOVERNMENT: The government on Thursday moved amendments to the insolvency and bankruptcy code, seeking to streamline the law and plug loopholes.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Venture capital fund Stellaris Venture Partners has roped in Cisco Investments, an arm of technology conglomerate Cisco, as a limited partner.
* INSURANCE: The ministry of electronics and information technology has allowed its 270,000 common service centres to partner with HDFC BANK and LIC for selling banking and insurance products across the country.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: In a bid to promote low-cost generic medicines, the health ministry plans to make it mandatory for pharma firms to carry the generic names of drugs in letters that are two font sizes larger than the brand name.
* POWER: Essar Power has decided to surrender the Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand in which it has already invested 4.9 bln rupees. The renewable energy sector in India is on the road to consolidation and players with smaller portfolios are looking at exiting the market as returns are shrinking in the face of lower tariffs and uncertainty on the policy front.
* RAILWAYS: The Indian Railways is working on a 35.3-trln-rupee investment plan by 2032, pushing up the capital expenditure for the ministry by around 91% from the current level.
* REGULATORY: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has decided to amend the current provisions in the Securities Act to enable the convergence of stock and commodity exchanges. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is likely to tighten net worth norms, introduce new shareholding rules and ease directorship conditions for stock exchanges, depositories and clearing corporations.
* STEEL: JSW will focus its resources for stressed assets in the iron-ore-rich eastern states of Odisha and Jharkhand, thus ceding ground in the race for Essar Steel. Arcelor Mittal and Nippon Steel are teaming up to jointly bid for Essar Steel. The last date for submitting bids for debt-laden Bhushan Power & Steel has been extended by 10 days to Feb 8 to consider some 'encouraging' offers, the Committee of Creditors decided on Saturday.
* TAXATION: Higher duty drawback rates for 102 products, including automobile and bicycle tyres and tubes, leather articles, marine and seafood products, came into effect from Thursday. Total collections under goods and services tax rose 7.3% on month to 867.03 bln rupees in December. Companies will be able to report delays of more than 30 minutes in the checking of electronic way bills carried by transport vehicles as the Goods and Services Tax Network will provide an online form where such information can be filed. The Income Tax Department claimed to have busted a racket of extracting fraudulent tax refunds by employees of bellwether companies like IBM, Vodafone and INFOSYS in alleged connivance with a chartered accountant in Bengaluru.
- The government will continue to rationalise the structure of the goods and services tax as the new indirect taxation system has stabilised in a much shorter time as compared to that of international peers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. The government may consider increasing import duty on certain medical devices in the forthcoming Budget with an aim to boost domestic manufacturing of those goods.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: Bharat Sanchar Nigam's move to monetise its real estate assets in order to shore up its revenues has run into trouble as the department of telecommunications has said since the ownership of the properties do not vest with the firm, its proposal cannot be processed. The Medical Technology Association of India has made a plea that all medical devices be brought under concessional GST rate of 5% from the current rate of 7.3% to lower the cost of healthcare, especially for needy patients. Vodafone Group chief executive Vittorio Colao has said that the swift progress made in closing the merger of the UK telecom companies India unit with IDEA CELLULAR and relaxing of spectrum holding caps reflect the improvement in ease of doing business in India. A consortium of Tata Group executives has teamed up with TPG Capital to bid for the fibre network owned by the Indian conglomerate's Tata Teleservices unit.
